Use of high viscosity, residual, petroleum fuels, in our surface transportation system, is currently limited to large bore, low speed, marine diesel engines. Other surface transportation, such as railroads, tug and barge, trucks and buses, use small or medium bore diesel engines, which now require use of low viscosity, distillate petroleum fuels, which are in short supply and expensive. New petroleum discoveries in recent years have tended toward a higher residual fuel content, the Athabaska tar sands being an example of a crude oil almost entirely composed of residual fuel. Residual fuels can be processed partially into distillate fuels, but stock, and hence energy, losses result. National energy independence could be substantially assisted if a major portion of our surface transportation system could be operated on low cost residual petroleum fuels and tars.
None of the apparatus drawings are to scale.